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March. For those of us in the eastern half of the US, it was one more month of winter weather when it should have been feeling like spring. It was a heck of a lot better than February, though. Am I right?

Anyway, onto what you are actually here for: my favorites from March.

Again March I participated in the Weekly Nail Challenge (#wnac2015) on instagram, and the theme for the month was holographic. For that reason, a lot of my monthly favorites were holographic polishes. Let’s start with the top left…

This is Nicole by OPI – Rock the Look from the Roughles collection. This came out awhile ago on clearance… I’m thinking it was last spring or summer. This was one that sat in my untried pile for months. I haven’t been big into the textured polish thing, but I figured I should finally try it. The longer I wore it, the more it grew on me! It was just so soft looking and different from anything else I wear on a regular basis. The feel of the textured polish took a little getting used to, but I really liked it! I think I’ll be wearing this one again!

Next is Nicole by OPI – Party Bus. I got this one on clearance for $149! I mostly got it for the large flower shaped holographic glitters in it. These are great to fish out and use for glitter placement manis. Like most holographic things, it’s hard to catch the true beauty and sparkly-ness of these glitters.

The next two polishes become a monthly favorite when they are paired together. Pictured is Revlon – Matte Pearl Glaze over NYC – Lexington Yellow. I love yellow, but like most light-haired white girls, yellow doesn’t love me back. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked happy yellow clothing of the rack while shopping only to discover in the dressing room that it makes my complexion look sickly. It’s so sad.

When I first put on Lexington Yellow, it really didn’t look that great with my skin tone, but then I added Matte Pearl Glaze, and it transformed it into this soft yellow with a pinkish glow that was actually wearable for me! Plus, my nails reminded me of Belle from Beauty and the beast.

Next we have Orly – Mirrorball. Here’s the story with this polish. Back before Christmas, when this polish came out, I stared at it in the store. I held it. I caressed the bottle. Then I practiced some self control and put it back on the shelf. I had been regretting that decision ever since. Then one day last month, I was down in York, PA and I stopped in the Sally’s there. Lo and behold, they had two bottles of Mirrorball in their clearance bin! I couldn’t believe my good fortune! My only regret is that I only bought one bottle.

Mirrorball has a fairly sheer formula, so it actually works really well as a topper to other polishes. Here it is layered over Wet n Wild -I Need a Refresh-Mint. (By the way, the current version of I Need a Refresh-Mint is a much brighter blue than the version I own. The older version is pretty much a dead on dupe for China Glaze – For Audrey.) I can’t wait to layer Mirrorball over all sorts of neon colors this summer.

The next polish is just like camping… It’s in tents. (In tents… Intense. Get it?) Polish Me Silly – Tealing No Lies is the most holo of the holo polishes that I own. The linear rainbow is just so strong. Someday I’ve got to order me some more Polish Me Silly polishes. Here’s some really simple flower nail art I did using Tealing No Lies as a base. (I just used my biggest dotting tool to make 5 petaled flowers with a really light blue polish, and then I made slightly smaller petals with a deep blue polish over the light petals. Then I used a little dotting tool to add some dots to the centers. Super easy and no artsy skills required!)

The last polish that was monthly favorite was Fresh Paint – Honeydew. I used this in several Easter manis, and I’ll show you those pictures in a separate post. I’m pretty sure this polish qualifies as pastel neon. It’s light and bright at the same time. It water marbles well, and you can get away with almost one coat. I think it will look great in the summer when I’ve got a bit of a tan. (I’m foundation shade “fair” in the winter, but with a tan I’m can wear “light” colored foundation.)

So, that’s all I have for you today. Thanks for reading! I do post realy regularly on instagram, so follow me there if you want to see my nails as I do them and not a month after the fact. Happy Spring to you all!

It seems like pretty much every blogger and YouTuber has listed their 14 favorites from 2014. I’m totally jumping on that bandwagon. This was tough, but I did it. There were a few polishes that it pained me to leave out, but I finally narrowed it down to the 14 polishes that I just couldn’t stop reaching for last year. Here they are:

Aren’t they so pretty?

Starting in the upper left corner we have Funky Finger – Sand & Stilettos.

This is just the best sparkly polish ever. It’s available exclusively at 5 Below. I’ve seen it at my local 5 Below within the past few weeks, so you can still grab this stunner for yourself for a mere $2.

Next, also available exclusively from 5 Below is Fresh Paint – Guava. Fabulous color, fabulous formula. A must-have for summer. Here it is paired with Sand & Stillettos:

It’s just the perfect neon peachy color, and a perfect dupe for China Glaze – Flip Flop Fantasy. I just couldn’t get enough of this color over the summer.

Next, we have one more 5 Below polish: Fresh Paint – Sugar Crush. This is the first true flaky polish that I’ve ever owned.

This polish is a show-stopper over any dark color. It’s mind blowing over black, teal, or dark purple, and I don’t know if I love it better shiny or matte. You just can’t go wrong with this one. I’m not sure if you can still find this at 5 Below or not, but if you see it there. GRAB IT!

Next, I loved China Glaze – Turned Up Turquoise.

The intense color and the shimmer make me swoon! I don’t have a picture of it with a shiny top coat, but when you do put a shiny top coat on, the shimmer really pops. Such a perfect color!

Yes, I’m a sucker for turquoise. Next is Jordana – Boy Oh Boy.

It almost looks green in the middle picture, but it’s not. It’s a deep, beautiful turquoise. And the formula on this baby is wonderful! Almost a one coater!

Next we have Ulta – Joined at the Hippo.

This is one of my more recent favorites. Actually, I just talked about this polish in my December Favorites. It’s got a great formula, and while it is a really deep blue, it never looks black. Just a beautiful polish!

Then there’s Broadway Nails – Space Flight, a really deep blue jelly.

I’ve actually got this on my nails right now, as you’ll see in a post later this week. This is an amazingly beautiful polish and it only costs $1! You can find this at Dollar General.

Now we come to the first indie polish that I ever owned: Valley Girl Lacquer – Fantasm.

Even in a really ugly jelly sandwich , I still love this polish:

This was my first exposure to the super huge round glitters that are pretty common in indie polishes and they really blew my mind when I first used them. Heck, they still blow my mind!

Next is Wet n Wild – Deception. This was my first really great jelly polish.

This was in a limited edition collection from the spring, so I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to find this anywhere and I’m very sorry about that. I’ve used about 1/4 of this bottle already, and I’m going to be heartbroken when it’s gone.This polish takes 5 or 6 coats to get that perfect jelly look, but it’s so worth it!

This almost neon pink really doesn’t seem like anything special, but it’s the pink that I reached for repeatedly back in the summer. I feel like it works well with my fair skin.

Next is a polish that I’ve talked about so many times: Wet n Wild Fergie – Gold Album.

This is the best gold polish that I’ve ever used! I love the stuff! It’s perfect and beautiful every time.

Next is Broadway Nails – Hot & Sexy. This is a dupe for China Glaze – Ruby Pumps.

So beautiful and red and sparkly! I stare at my nails a lot when I’m wearing this! Also available at Dollar General for $1.

Now we have the polish that I loved the most in the fall. NYC – Royal Chic. This was from a limited edition collection, but really, there are lots of great browns out there.

Sadly, these pictures really don’t capture the chocolaty brown goodness that is this polish. It’s just so pretty and rich looking on the nail.

Last, but certainly not least is Polish me Silly – Tealing no lies. This is my first indie holographic polish, and wow, it’s amazing.

I just got this guy for Christmas, so I’ve only worn it once so far, but I pretty much couldn’t stop staring at my nails while it was on. And I forced my husband to admire my nails so many times while I was wearing this. It’s really, really amazing, especially in the sun.

So that’s it! My 14 favorite polishes of the past year! Thanks for reading! What were some of your favorite polishes in 2014? I’d love to know!

I’m finally getting around to my December favorites. Ugh, I have so much catching up to do! Not surprisingly, in December I loved all sorts of red and gold and glittery polishes.

Let’s start with the top left. This is Broadway Nails – Hot & Sexy.

I used this as my base color for my Sparkly Red Snowman Nails. I just love this polish! This is a great dupe for China Glaze – Ruby Slippers, and it only costs $1! The only place I’ve seen these sold is at Dollar General. (You can read more about that here.) This polish has a red jelly base with tons of red micro glitter. And if I remember correctly, it’s easy to remove, unlike a lot of glitter polishes. My little swatch isn’t doing this polish justice. It’s super beautiful!

Next we’ve got Wet n Wild Fergie – Gold Album.

I’ve talked about this polish lots of times. Every time I use it, I’m amazed and how beautiful and sparkly and shiny and GOLD it is. I used this in December in my Advent manicure. It’s pretty much a one coater, but but I tend to do two coats just to make sure it’s perfect.

Another favorite is Ulta – Joined at the Hippo.

This was the base color for my Nativity Nails. This is a beautiful deep blue cream polish. The thing I love about it is that it is really dark blue, but it never looks black. The formula is wonderfully easy to work with, also.

I also loved Pure Ice – Studette in December.

The bottle is a little fuzzy in the picture because I focused my camera on the nail swatch instead of the bottle. This is a really dense micro glitter polish in a clear base that is about 98% gold and 2% red. So cool! I used this for my New Year’s Nails. Really, if there’s ever a time that you can sport obnoxiously glittery nails, it’s New Year’s. This one is a bugger to remove, but it’s worth it!

Next are my three new Polish Me Silly polishes! I ordered these through Polish Me Silly’s Etsy shop, along with some polishes for my sister for Christmas. Then I gave the polishes that I ordered for myself to my Hubby so that he could give them back to me on Christmas. I know. We’re weird.

(Again, the bottles are a little fuzzy, but the swatches are clear.)

The first one is Are You Elfin Kiddin Me? This is a thermal polish. The color in the picture is the cold color, but then when it gets warm, the green base turns to white, which makes the dark green glitter really pop out. It dries to kind of a semi-matte finish, but that’s fixable with a top coat. (You can read more about what kind of top coat NOT to use with this polish here.)

The middle one is There’s Snow Place Like Home. This is a dark blue jelly base with a ton, and I mean TON of gold, white and silver glitter in it. All of that glitter makes it kind of a pain to apply, but the end results are like this:

The sparkliness is over-the-top! This is the polish that I’m currently wearing, and I’ve been asked about it so many times.

Tealing No Lies is my final polish. This is amazingly holographic!

I can’t even tell you how many times I forced my husband to admire my nails while I was wearing this. In bright sunlight it is so beautiful that it pretty much just makes you go numb with joy just looking at them. This is definitely one of my favorite polishes of the year. So amazing!

So, that’s all of my nail polish news, but I do have a little review for you in my new section that I’m calling….

Non-Nail News and Reviews

So, compliments of Influenster, I was sent this new antipersperant to try: Dove Dry Spray. This is the stuff with the commercials with people touching their armpits and then snapping. I know, it’s a little weird. This products claims to be dry instantly. I think it’s a little more accurate to say that it’s dry in 5-10 seconds. It has really light sent, sort of like baby powder, but not quite. Pleasant. It also claims to give 48 hour protection. I’m not the type to go 2 days without a shower unless I’m in some sort of camping situation, but I will say that after 24 hours, my pits were still stank free. That’s saying something, because usually I have a little bit of funk going on after 24 hours. The coolest thing about this deodorant, though, is how it made my armpits feel to the touch. Even after a full day, I couldn’t feel any weird residue or anything! My armpit skin just felt clean and smooth and dry! It was in that moment of touching my own armpit that I suddenly got those commercials with people touching their armpits and snapping. After 3 days of testing this deodorant, I switched back to my old deodorant with the plan to use up the old stuff here in the colder months so that I can save my Dove Dry Spray for the warm months. This stuff would be perfect for sleeveless outfits. (Currently the windchill is below zero {Fahrenheit} and I’ve got three layers on, one of which is wool. I think I’m a solid four months away from wearing anything sleeveless. Come on, spring!) This product is $5.47 at Walmart, and I saw in in Rite Aid for over $7, so it’s definitely a little pricy. Definitely worth a try, though if you are in search of the perfect antiperspirant.

I just recently placed my first order with Polish Me Silly, an indie polish seller on Etsy. I oped to order from Polish Me Silly because they offer a generous mini size polish of 9 ml in every color of their polish for $650-$7.50. That’s one ml more than a full sized Julep polish, and let’s be honest: it’s a rarity to use a a 15 ml bottle of polish.

Alas, half of the order is for my sister for Christmas, so I can’t really swatch those polishes for you, and the other half of the order is for me for Christmas, and the hubby shammed me into putting them away until Christmas. I did convince him that I should be able to keep out one polish to use before Christmas since it’s so blatantly Christmas-y looking that I wouldn’t want to use it after Christmas. And this is it:

It’s called Are U Elfin Kiddin Me? I’m not a swearer really, but the name cracks me up a little. The reason I really felt I needed this polish is because it’s a thermal polish. My hands were ice cold when I did my nails, so this pretty dusty bluish-green is the “cold” color. Now, from looking at other reviewers pictures, I know this polish is supposed to change to white when it’s warm, and since the part of the nail that extends beyond the nail bed usually is usually the “cold” color even when your hands are warm, I was anticipating having white nails with green tips a lot of the time.

Oddly though, even when I would stick my hands in REALLY hot water, I couldn’t get the polish to change really white. Here’s a picture right after I got out of a hot shower:

They are obviously a lighter green, but they are not white. The only thing I could figures is that somehow either my base or top coat made a difference. The base coat I used was Orly – Bonder and the top coat was INM – Out the Door.

To make a long-ish story a little shorter, I eventually painted a stripe of the polish on some aluminum foil. On top of the polish, I painted a little stripe of INM – Out the Door and NYC – Clear, the only two topcoats I had on hand.

Here’s my little swatch after running it under cold water:

And Here it is after running it under hot water:

Ah-HAH! Mystery solved! You see that spot that stayed green? Well, that was where I put the INM – Out the Door. I haven’t really researched the science behind these thermal polishes, but there is something in my Out the Door that un-thermal-ed this particular polish.

By the way, I put this polish on my toes with the same Orly – Bonder base coat and the NYC top coat and they change color just fine.

So, the moral of this story for me is that the next time I get a thermal polish, I’m going to do a test swatch with my base and top coats before I dive in and do all my nails.

Now I’m a little torn. Should I take off this polish that isn’t even showing any tip wear and redo them with the NYC top coat or should I give it a few days before I redo them?

Oh, and I fully intend to swatch and review the other polishes I got after Christmas, and if my sister is agreeable, I’ll show you the polishes I got for her, too.